Tag: green mamba thailand

Recently 2 adult and 13 juvenile eastern green mambas escaped from a house located within the flooded area in Bangkok, Thailand.

Some were caught, some killed, and apparently nobody bitten (yet) by one. They did import some antivenin and have many vials available, at what I think was 300,000 THB – per vial. Yes, about $10,000 USD per vial. If bitten you might need many vials – so stay far away from any green snake in Bangkok for the time being.

Mambas are so dangerous for their speed and extra long strikes. Not to mention the complete absence of antivenin for the species in Thailand prior to this. Mambas are excellent climbers and are very fast. Do not try to kill or capture one, you will almost definitely be bitten, and probably die from it – if a good bite. Mambas strike fast, often, and unpredictably, and not just once, but many times, if threatened.

Eastern Mamba venom is rated at 3.05 mg per kilogram as a lethal dose to 50% of mice given subcutaneous injections. These mice were of the same size and species. Venom is rated like this so we can compare venoms of different snakes. In the real world whether you get a subcutaneous injection, intra-venous, or intra-muscular, is all up to fate – and they have different results. It’s likely that your bite would be subcutaneous in most cases.

In comparison, there are other Thailand snakes with more potent venom on the subcutaneous LD-50 scale than the eastern green mambas:

Bungarus multicinctus – Many-banded Krait

Bungarus candidus – Blue krait, or Malayan krait

Naja kaouthia – Monocled cobra

Ophiophagus hannah – King cobra

Daboia russelli russelli – Russell’s Viper

Just to name 5.

I didn’t look up the other cobras, but their venom is likely also more toxic than the venom in mambas loose in Bangkok.

Here are some recent tweets about snakes from the twitter stream, searching “thaifloodeng snake”: